outlines

outlines are meant for the individual writing it, it is meant to jog your memory so you know what you meant so say and write after reading a few words or a phrase from your outline.  i do feel it helped by mapping out what sources i want to put in order, the review in class helped me by showing me to organize the sources under categories and to make the paper by topic rather than sources. 
for my research paper i want to know how small businesses survived during the depression.

perspective on notice

nothing in particular struck me as a surprise, as historians we have to infer from what is being written about in the text or textbook.  it should be second nature to question what we are reading and what is not being said, or to realize that something is implied.  i did learn to question "what for?" when i read a text now.  why it is important to read this and understand the purpose it has been written for, what to convince you of when you are reading this.  as historians, we should already know that any textbook comes with a slant it wants us to know or not know, if you are reading correctly.  i do not think there should be a warning on books saying so, unless the person reading is taking facts to heart, then we should teach them.  we should teach students how to read and to question why and who it is being written for.

Becker perception

"Each of us is subject to the limitations of time and place."  meaning no matter how hard you try you will look at things with your current perspective on marrying many women or men, female circumcision or having one man with all the power.  We do not mean to put ourselves in history and condemn those practices at first, we should understand the context of a situation and then put in into perspective from our own culture and understanding.  Historians must attempt to put aside our emotional connection with the present and focus on the facts at hand before passing judgment on another culture on their actions over our own.  The ideals of what an historian should do has not changed, what they do must change in order to pass on a more complete knowledge in context of the given situation.  Such as, girls in communities where they perform female circumcision may in fact want it to happen, it means they are a woman and it stands for something in their way of life.  The historian would look upon this and judge it to be inhumane and immoral.  It is not humane to judge how another culture lives or has survived these hundreds and thousands of years. 

Zinn, Becker, and Stearns

The three, though having different views on history, all agree we must understand what history is.  Becker wants to reduce history to its lowest terms and understand the context of a situation.  Stearns suggests we should study history because if we do not then we cannot participate as a productive member in a society.  Zinn wants people to understand and respect history because he wants the context of a situation to be told and learned by people.  Why this battle happened and what the soldiers on each side were thinking of before fighting.  Each view is valid but if we can be taught history in these manners then people would be given a more clear picture of events said and done. As well as, hopefully, have a better understanding of the past and what repeating those actions can do to us, as a people and as a nation, in the future. 

Dream out of reach

The march on Washington in 1963 has been dubbed "The march on Washington for jobs and freedom."  having a job was not just enough for people, you needed to be able to live off of those wages, support your family both nuclear and extended.  Just as that idea was expressed primarily toward African Americans during the civil rights movement. Now we are in a dangerous recession with the world on the the fringe of economic destruction. instead of finding long term solutions for the excessive debt, our Government is cutting corners and in the short term cutting the spending however they are not creating jobs for the 9 percent of the American population that remains unemployed.  The rich keep getting richer and the middle classes and the working class are stuck with 7.25 an hour from the federal government minimum wage. We, as people, cannot live on that, " Food, Clothing, housing, and transportation on 7.25 an hour? There aren't enough hours in the week."